About Boys - The Southport School
About Boys - The Southport School
About Boys - The Southport School
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<strong>The</strong> Construction of Masculinity<br />
“Our culture co-opts some of the most impressive<br />
qualities boys can possess - their physical energy,<br />
boldness, curiosity, and action orientation - and<br />
distorts them into a punishing dangerous definition<br />
of masculinity”<br />
(Kindlon D, & Thompson M. Raising Cain)<br />
It should be clear from the these facts that the<br />
picture of a boy's life as we enter a new century is<br />
a challenging one. A disproportionate number of<br />
boys are not achieving academically, many develop<br />
behaviour problems, have dangerously low self<br />
esteem, drop out of school, and in some instances<br />
decide that life is no longer worth living.<br />
Dr. William Pollack, Clinical Psychologist and<br />
Co-Director, Centre for Men, McLean Hospital<br />
Harvard Medical <strong>School</strong>, in his book ‘Real<br />
<strong>Boys</strong>’, suggests that many of the dilemmas<br />
faced by boys today arise from adherence<br />
in our society to what he calls the Boy<br />
Code - “the outdated and constricting<br />
assumptions, models and rules about<br />
boys that our society has used since the<br />
nineteenth century”.